The present invention relates generally to containers, and in particular aspects to containers useful to receive manufactured articles and which have the capacity to vary their volume to accommodate more or fewer of the manufactured articles.
In high-volume manufacturing of commercial goods, such as bagged snack foods, the completed articles must be drawn off the manufacturing line and packed into shipping containers, such as boxes, as efficiently as possible. Heretofore, such manufactured articles have been conveyed with a conveyor onto a “pack-off” table, which is rotating. Packing personnel positioned around the table remove the manufactured items as the table rotates, and manually pack them into the shipping containers.
At times, the rate at which the manufactured articles are conveyed onto the pack-off table exceeds the capacity of the packing personnel to remove and pack them. In such cases, it becomes necessary to slow or shut down the conveyor dispensing the manufactured articles onto the pack-off table. This in turn can disrupt the manufacturing line and reduce the output of the manufacturing facility.
In light of this background, needs remain for improved and/or alternative apparatuses and methods for handling manufactured articles as they come off the line. In certain aspects, the present invention is addressed to these needs.